She was controversial--largely because she was a brilliant, outspoken woman operating in a male-dominated world that wasn’t ready for her. Today, that same boldness is exactly why many people (especially those interested in women in STEM and intellectual history) view her as a total badass.
Great!
Eden Rainbow-Cooper, of Portsmouth, England, raises her arms while approaching the finish line while winning the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 20, 2026. (Charles Krupa/AP)
Congrats to Eden Rainbow-Cooper for her second Boston Marathon wheelchair title! 🥳
Rainbow-Cooper is an English Paralympic athlete--finishing today in an unofficial 1:30:51.
#Boston #BostonMarathon
Could people not just book with you directly and thus bypass the website/company that supports apartheid, war crimes, and crimes against humanity?
Gorgeous paintings.
This luminous oil-on-canvas self-portrait, painted in 1782 by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842), captures the artist at the height of her early fame. The 27-year-old Vigée Le Brun — already a sought-after portraitist to the French court — presents herself with confident grace against a dramatic sky of soft blue clouds. She wears an elaborate wide-brimmed straw hat decorated with a large white feather and a garland of red, white, and blue flowers, her curly hair cascading over one shoulder. Her gown is a soft pink silk with a low neckline framed by a voluminous white ruffled fichu, accented by satin sleeves with lace cuffs, a black sash, and delicate earrings. In her left hand she holds a wooden painter’s palette laden with vivid pigments and several brushes. Her expression is direct, intelligent, and subtly smiling, conveying warmth, poise, and professional pride. The composition places her figure prominently against the atmospheric background, emphasizing her identity as both elegant woman and working artist. This celebrated self-portrait, one of several she created, underscores her key achievements as a trailblazing female painter who escaped the French Revolution to continue her career across Europe, painting royalty from Russia to Italy. It stands as a powerful declaration of her talent and independence in an era when women artists faced significant barriers.
This grand oil-on-canvas portrait, titled Marie Antoinette and Her Children (1787), was painted by the celebrated French artist Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842). One of the most accomplished women painters of the 18th century, Vigée Le Brun served as official portraitist to Queen Marie Antoinette, produced over 600 portraits, and became one of the first women admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. In this monumental composition, the queen sits regally yet maternally at center in a sumptuous crimson gown edged in gold, a towering powdered wig adorned with a dramatic red velvet hat trimmed in white ostrich plumes and gauze. She gazes calmly outward with poised serenity, cradling the infant Duc de Normandie (future Louis XVII) in white on her lap while her eldest daughter, Madame Royale (Marie Thérèse), leans affectionately against her in a rich red dress with lace cuffs. To the right, the young Dauphin Louis Joseph stands in an elegant blue-and-gold suit, pointing toward the large, draped empty cradle swathed in black fabric — a subtle reference to the recent loss of an earlier child. The opulent Versailles setting features heavy brocade curtains, marble columns, a gilded cabinet topped with a crown, and an ornate floral carpet. The overall mood is one of tender domesticity and royal dignity, yet it carries poignant historical significance: completed just two years before the French Revolution, the painting was intended to humanize the queen as a devoted mother but became a symbol of the monarchy’s final years. It remains one of Vigée Le Brun’s most famous works, blending Rococo elegance with emerging Neoclassical restraint.
French painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: one of the most successful/sought-after portraitists of the late 1700s. Easy to see why.
She was the official court painter to Marie Antoinette, producing ~30 portraits of the Queen over 6 years. Born #OTD in 1755. #art #artsky
Left: Self-portrait, 1782
Ah, Thatcher. My mistake. Criticism of her I understand.
No idea where you got that from. The sentiment re: Finnbogadóttir is overwhelmingly positive, both in Iceland & internationally. She is widely seen as a trailblazer for gender equality & a guardian of Icelandic cultural identity. I live in Iceland 3 months/year & hear nothing but praise.
This black-and-white photographic portrait, presented as a modern graphic composite with a soft lavender gradient overlay on the right, captures Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986), the legendary French existentialist philosopher, novelist, essayist, and feminist icon whose groundbreaking 1949 treatise The Second Sex forever transformed understandings of gender, sexuality, and women’s oppression. In the tightly cropped, shoulder-up close-up, de Beauvoir radiates warmth and vitality, her head turned slightly toward the viewer as she flashes a broad, genuine smile that reveals her upper teeth and crinkles the corners of her eyes with unmistakable joy and intellectual sparkle. Her dark hair is pulled back, exposing her ear adorned with a large, dark hoop earring. She wears a light-toned, finely ribbed turtleneck sweater whose texture is clearly visible, accented by a chunky, dark beaded or chain-link necklace that rests against the sweater’s collar. The left side of the image shows her against a softly blurred, dark draped curtain or studio backdrop, while the right third features the pastel lavender field with a crisp white rectangular text box containing her famous quotation in elegant serif type: “One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion.” Below it appears the attribution “~ Simone de Beauvoir / French Writer and Philosopher.”
"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion."
~Simone de Beauvoir | Writer, intellectual, philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist--died #OTD in 1986.
ICYMI: Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime.
😂
A black-and-white vintage portrait of a young Dr. Fayza Haikal in her graduation regalia. She is smiling softly at the camera, with short, voluminous dark wavy hair. She wears a dark academic gown with a striped sash in the colors of the Egyptian flag (red, white, and black) draped across her shoulder and chest. The background consists of dark, vertically pleated curtains, creating a formal and timeless atmosphere.
A close-up, chest-up portrait of Dr. Fayza Haikal, a pioneering Egyptian Egyptologist. She is an older woman with a warm, beaming smile, looking slightly off-camera. She has short, dark brown hair and wears rectangular rimless glasses and a bright lime green and white vertically striped collared shirt under a dark jacket. The background is softly blurred, showing a warm, indoor setting with books on a shelf and a hint of a dark wooden chair.
Pioneering Egyptologist Dr. Fayza Haikal:
+ First Egyptian woman to earn a PhD in Egyptology, Oxford, 1965
+ Established the Dept of Egyptology, American University in Cairo, 1984
+ First female president, Internat'l Association of Egyptologists, 1991-2000
She was born #OTD in 1938. #WomenInSTEM
Portrait of Alison Des Forges, in her later years with long silver-gray hair, wearing a black top and strand of pearls. She smiles gently at the camera, seated against a softly lit curtain backdrop. To the right is the cover of her seminal book Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda – a sepia-toned image of scattered machetes and human remains with the title in bold white text.
Alison Des Forges was an historian, #humanrights activist, senior advisor @hrw.org & primary author of 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 (1999)--the definitive account of the Rwandan #genocide.
It's International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda.🕯️
#nonfiction #booksky #litsky #histodons
So on and so forth.
And, of course, rebuilding a power plant isn't like fixing a downed line. Electricity (depending on what's hit or how badly) could be out for many months or longer.
It would be devastating.
* Major hospitals have backup diesel generators designed for short-term use, not long-term operations and...
* Generators require diesel fuel--> no power, no fuel pumps, refineries may be destroyed/offline
* Oxygen concentrators, ventilators, neonatal incubators & more would fail if fuel runs out
No electricity:
* Loss of running water
* Raw sewage from treatment plans could contaminate potable water sources
* >90% of Iran’s freshwater is used for agriculture (food production, supply chains)
* Refrigeration fails (food, meds, etc.)
* Digital communications, banking, payment systems down
In war crimes cases, showing/proving intent is always harder than showing/proving the action(s). You are correct that these statements from the US President do make it easier as the intent is both willful & reckless. Of course, it extends beyond the president to include people like SecDef Hegseth.
A close-up, side-profile photograph of Francesca Albanese. She is wearing bold, black-rimmed glasses, a large decorative ring, and long floral-shaped earrings. She is dressed in a layered grey and maroon scarf and appears to be in a thoughtful or listening pose with her hand resting near her chin.
Buon compleanno, cara Francesca! 🥳
Il mondo ha bisogno della tua dedizione e del tuo coraggio più che mai.
A couple of years ago in Gaborone, I saw a documentary about Dulcie September titled "Murder in Paris." She was a truly courageous woman, a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle and more people should know her name and of her legacy.
Ah yes, the defensive Secretary of War Crimes...
Iran is asking for more than just reparations.
Thank you for your YES vote on H.Con.Res. 38.
So, would the US sit back then and watch as Iran finishes the war with Israel flying solo?
It would be lunacy (and a bunch of other not-so-positive words) to put boots on the ground in Iran.
✔️
whoops
He spent >a year bullying, insulting, threatening US allies & then asks them for help in the unprovoked illegal war of choice he's lost control of? Not to mention he's asking them to do something Trump knows is folly, which is why the USN isn't doing it & why he didn't ask his bestest ally to do it.
All Hail the Queen ❤️
Understated, Matilda Joslyn Gage was a radical badass.
She was one of the most uncompromising, intellectually fearless & politically radical voices in the entire first-wave women's suffrage movement. Beyond the vote, she wanted to dismantle entire systems she saw as oppressing women.
If only...
In your example, the TSA folks didn't choose not to get paid, it was forced upon them. However, historically people were willing to make sacrifices to effect change. That's why collective action doesn't happen in the US.
Must be maddening then to see that "never again" is, in practice, "ever again."